CENTRE The Kolkata Regional Centre was established in the year 1958. It is one of the seven centres of Soil and Land Use Survey Organisation a subordinate office of the Department of Agriculture , Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Govt. of . The centre is located in the E-Block, Baishnabghata - Patuli Township, Kolkata - 700 094 on the Garia Connector of Eastern Metropolitan Bypass near Garia junction of the South Calcutta. The centre has three storied building with a courtyard. Soil Survey Officer’s room, administrative section and also cartographgic laboratory is situated in the first floor. The basement is the garage for office vehicles. In the second floor , a well equipped soil analytical laboratory is situated along with the field section. Remote sensing & GIS Laboratory along with Library are situated in the top floor.

Fig:Front View of the Kolkata Centre The major activities of this Centre included conducting various types of soil surveys comprising mapping of vulnerable areas for priority delineation followed by detailed soil survey in the priority areas for generating soil resource data base. Other activities include district wise Land Degradation Mapping and Soil Resource Mapping using Remote Sensing techniques. But at present the centre is to provide detailed scientific database on soil and land characteristic to the various State User Departments for planning and implementation of soil and water conservation in the Watershed based Programme. In addition to development of Soil Information system, Preparation of Microwatershed Atlas of Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura, Assam, and also , Monitoring and Evaluation work under PMKSY Project, Monitoring of Soil Health Card Project, Preparation of Soil

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Fertility Map of Aspirational villages under Krishi Kalyan Abhiyan I and II etc. are also undertaken by the centre. Preparation of Soil Fertility Map of Baikuntha pur subdivision and preparation of Soil Fertility Map of Regional Fodder Station is also carried out in consultancy mode. Moreover, this centre imparts training on Soil and Land Resources Inventory for Integrated Watershed Management with an aim towards development of trained manpower for effective utilization of soil and land resources database for formulation of scientific watershed management plan. Facilities 1. COMPUTER LAB: 1. Hardware A. Computers Quantity i. HP Workstation 2 nos ii. GPS 4 nos iii. HP PC ( Admin) 2 nos iv. HP PC ( Tech) 12 nos B. Scanner Cum Printers: i. Cannon iPF771 Ripro 1 No. Scanner (36’’ Width) ii. HP Deskjet ink 1 No. Advantage 2135 Printer Cum Scanner iii. HP Laserjet P1106 ( 2 Nos Printer) 2. Software: i. Arc GIS-10 3 Nos License ii. ERDAS Imagine-9.3 1 No. License iii. Auto CAD 3D Map 2 nos License iv. Ms Office2016 1 no License 3. Internet and LAN: i. BSNL Internet ii. v. All workstation and PCs are connected through LAN 2. REMOTE SENSING LAB: 1. Visual Interpretation a. Light Table for Image Interpretation-6 nos b. Mirror Stereoscope for aerial Photo Interpretation- 11 nos c. Pocket Stereoscope for aerial Photo Interpretation-25 nos 2. Digital Analysis/GIS i) HP Workstation-2nos ii) Cannon iPF771 Ripro Scanner (36’’ Width)-1 no iii) Arc GIS-10 software-3 nos iv) ERDAS Imagine-9.3- 1 no v) Auto CAD 3D Map-2 nos vi) Ms Office2016- 1 no

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Fig: Remote Sensing & Digital cartographic Lab 3. PHOTO PROCESSING LABORATORY & PRINTING CELL There is as such no Photo Processing Laboratory or Printing Cell in this centre. However, Geocoded Imageries are printed with the help of Ripro MSP Scanner. Besides, technical reports are also printed with the help of Work Centre KYOCERA Task alfa machine. 4. SOIL LABORATORY This centre is well equipped with Soil Laboratory for Physical and physic-chemical analysis of soil samples. The instruments available in the Soil Laboratory are as follows:

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Sl. No. Name of the Instrument Quantity 1. Mechanical Shaker 1 2. Oven (Electric) 1 3. Centrifuge 1 4. Stainless Steel Distillation Plant 1 5. Single Glass Distilled Water Plant 1 6. Refrigerator 1 7. Gas Cylinder 1 8. Spectrophotometer 1 9. Flame Photometer 1 10. Conductivity Bridge 1 11. pH meter 1 12. Voltage Stabiliser 1 13. Digital Electronics Balance 1 14. Digital Analytical Balance 1 15. Pan Balance 1 16. Weight Box 2 17. Soil Hydrometer 1 18. Horizontal reciprocating shaker 1

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Fig: SOIL LABORATORY

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5. CARTOGRAPHY LABORATORY This centre has a well-established cartography Laboratory. Survey of India Toposheets and maps are also preserved in this Laboratory. Line maps are prepared in this Laboratory which is used in the preparation of digital final map in the GIS environment.

6. LIBRARY:

The Centre maintains a library containing selected reference books on soil science, soil survey, remote sensing and other allied disciplines. Copies of the Soil Survey Reports and Other Publications of SLUSI as well as those received from other central and state

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7. DOCUMENTATION AND USER SERVICES

The Centre publishes the results of various kinds of soil survey and special projects in the form of soil and land use survey reports and maps. Up to the year 2018-2019 , published 407 reports by this Centre, out of which 211 reports of Detailed Soil Survey, 15 reports of Land Degradation Mapping, 71 reports of Soil Resource Mapping and 110 reports of Rapid Reconnaissance Survey. The published reports of the Centre covers the area of west Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and North eastern states In the form of hard copy and is available since 1961.Abstracts of these reports are available on the website of SLUSI on free of cost. These reports are made available to the user agencies of states and central departments, agricultural universities/ institutions and related organizations for planning various developmental programmes on soil and water conservation, water management, farm level planning, land reclamation etc.

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